While Platinum Games left the project earlier in 2019, the bulk of what it built remains, including the level layout, character animation, and fighting systems.

Each character has their own fighting style and is tied to a certain weapon or weapon type.

The game progresses in a mostly linear fashion, but there will be additional activities. “You can pick up side-quests from the towns you visit along the way, and come and go between them as you please,” according to director Tetsuya Fukuhara.

Towns also act as lobbies where you can team up with other players online and take on missions. (You can also play solo, with the rest of the four-person party being AI-controlled.)

Regarding characters, Fukuhara said, “We know there are many fan favorites, so we’ll try to fit in as many as we reasonably can. It’s not possible to match the roster size of the original game, of course, and the development team has its hands full deciding who makes the final cut.”

Granblue Fantasy: Versus

Regarding eSports, Fukuhara said, “Many people think of fighting games when they hear ‘eSports,’ and that’s another genre we want to take a stab at. When the time comes to hold [Granblue Fantasy] Versus tournaments, we’ll be sure to deliver something great for fans of Granblue, eSports enthusiasts, and spectators alike.”

Regarding characters, Fukuhara said, “”We consulted with Arc System Works to see how they decided on which characters to include in the initial releases of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue… Great care is being taken to model every character’s movesets and animations to match with their originals and bring them to life.”

While Granblue Fantasy Versus will hinge around a weapons-based fighting system, “right now the battle system is completely different [from Arc System Works fighting games like Guilty Gear and BlazBlue],” according to Fukuhara. “It’s much slower compared to Guilty Gear and BlazBlue… Combos are simplified, and all special moves can be activated at the press of a button in Versus. I think this simple but deep system will allow for interesting strategies.”

There will be an story mode with an original story. “A very interesting ending is waiting,” Fukuhara teased.